Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - When to NOT Share Your Opinion | New Testament | Romans 14

Episode Date: August 7, 2023

Have you ever found yourself caught up in a debate about a hot topic that the Bible doesn't really say anything about? Maybe it's vaccinations, LGBTQ+, or politics. How does the Bible say you should react? In today's episode, Patrick looks to Paul's words in Romans 14 for wisdom. Your support makes TMBT possible. Ten Minute Bible Talks is a crowd-funded project. Join the TMBTeam to reach more people with the Bible. Give now. Join the TMBT community in reading the entire New Testament in one year. Get your FREE reading plan here. Like this content? Make sure to leave us a rating and share it with others, so others can find it too. Use #asktmbt to connect with us, ask questions, and suggest topics. We'd love to hear from you! To learn more, visit our website and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter@TenMinuteBibleTalks. Don't forget to subscribe to the TMBT Newsletter here. Passages: Romans 14

Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life. In the time it takes to get to work. I'm Patrick Miller. In August of 2021, an author, Christian, and employee of the National Religious Broadcasters Association, a guy named Dan Darling wrote a column in USA Today. And in that column, he was explaining why he was going to get the COVID vaccine. Now, again, in the article, he's also trying to explain why about 25% of evangelicals were hesitant to get the vaccine. And he argues that their mistrust of institutions and health authorities wasn't unfounded. Nonetheless, he personally felt that it was best to go ahead and take the vaccine. Now, this article, it was about the most balanced, kind, nuanced article you could imagine on the subject. But when he got back to work the next day, his boss called him into his office and told him he was fired. He said that he broke the National Religious Broadcaster Association's neutrality policy about COVID vaccines.

And Dan found this kind of confusing because there had already been people speaking about the issue with non-neutrality. And his article wasn't even argumentative. But none of that mattered. He was out. For the next two weeks, his name was in national headlines. From the New York Times to CNN to Morning Joe, they all sounded the same. Christian gets fired for saying that he's pro vaccines. But back at home, Dan was deeply discouraged.

He wasn't trying to create division. But it seems like these days Christians are arguing. about secondary and tertiary issues that the Bible says nothing about. We're judging each other over small differences. We're firing each other. We're breaking up small groups. We're leaving churches, not over core doctrine like the Trinity or atonement, but over cultural issues, like vaccines.

Maybe you've found yourself caught up in a debate over a hot topic that the Bible doesn't actually say much about. Maybe you left your church because they didn't handle BLM or George Floyd or LGBT issues or book bans or drag shows or vaccines or masking or whatever it is that you cared about or maybe someone you love broke off their relationship with you or your small group or your church for exactly those reasons well i want to encourage you today because the truth is that this is nothing new christians have found ways to quarrel over things unnecessarily since the earliest days of the church let's pick up paul's letter to the romans chapter 14 verse one

accept the one whose faith is weak without quarreling over disputable matters one person's faith allows them to eat anything but another whose faith is weak eats only vegetables the one who eats everything must not treat with contempt the one who does not and the one who does not eat everything must not judge the one who does for god has accepted them both who are you to judge someone else's servant to their own master servant stand or fall and they will stand for the lord is able to make them to stand Paul goes on to say that in the Roman church Christians were judging each other over sacred days, over the meats that they eat, and a lot more. You see, they were just like us. And interestingly, Paul doesn't just say drop it.

He says something that might surprise us. He says, you can hold to your view so long as you do what you do unto Jesus and for his sake. Take your vaccine unto Jesus or not. But what you cannot do is judge one another and tear apart Christ's church in the process. process. Verse 19. Let us therefore make every effort to do what leads to peace into mutual edification. Don't destroy the work of God for the sake of food. All food is clean, but it's wrong for a person to eat anything that causes someone else to stumble. It's better not to eat the meat or drink the wine or to do anything else that will cause your brother or sister to fall. So whatever you

believe about these things, keep between yourself and God. Do you realize that the small fights we pick over small things could cause some really big problems. When we give into the temptation to quarrel or judge our friends and our hearts, we shred apart the work of God for the sake of our own preferences. Let me just confess, I often find myself doing this. I'm an opinionated person. I've never met a topic I don't want to talk about, but sometimes I really need Paul's advice at the end there. So whatever you believe about these things, keep between yourself and God. You don't have to air your every opinion on every single thing. I don't have to do it.

In fact, maybe I shouldn't if it's going to cause division. Because Jesus's work is the work of unity. It's the work of bringing diverse people together. It's the work of bringing people from across ethnic lines, political lines, social lines. Every line imaginable, he brings them together. Let's go back to Dan Darling, the guy who wrote the article about vaccine. After his name became a hot headline, CNN and Morning Joe both asked him to come on and talk about it. And they expected Dan to exoriate his former employer.

They expected him to roast all those anti-vaccine Christians who cost him his job. Instead, Dan spoke words of peace and unity, words of respect and dignity. He decided that even if others wanted to use him to divide, he would use this event to show an unusual form of unity. how is God calling you to do likewise?